THIS IS IT - WORLD CUP FINAL

It's World Cup Final tonight (2:30am Malaysia time). After 63 matches being played for the last 29 days, we are finally into the most important day of the tournament - THE FINAL.

The final two are HOLLAND vs SPAIN.Both countries are yet to won any world cup title before this and been regarded as the two most popular footballing nation that never had won the world cup. The closest was Holland in the 70's. Tonight is the night to make history. One set of the players will be making history and forever become the 'footballing immortal' while the other set will be left to rue on their miss chances.

Paul the Octopus, the best predictor of the world cup results with 6/6 (that is 100%) now, had 'hand' pick the Spaniard to win the world cup. click here. Paul the Octopus is actually a 'German' and all predictions involving Germany so far were amazingly correct. Including the semi final game that Germany lost to Spain in which Paul the Octopus was actually choose Spain!

(Paul the Octopus prediction, Wikipedia)

And, for football fan like me, tonight will end our long and hard night throughout the last 29 days juggling between live football telecast and a punch clock at work. I won't be supporting any team tonight but I am looking forward for a very good game indeed (I support Brasil, remember ? huhuhu).

My prediction - the game will be controlled by Spain by passing around the ball in midfield while the Dutch will be compact at the back and trying to hit the Spaniard on counter attack.

Man to watch for Spain would be Andres Iniesta who love to make the penetrating run with the ball from midfield and David Villa for his predatory instinct in front of goal.

Man to watch for Holland would be Arjen Robben who plays on the right of the midfield. A battle with Capdevila (Spain's left back) would determine the outcome of the game. Should the Spaniard able to contain Robben, they will be able to keep the Dutch quiet throughout the match. This is important for Spain. The other one would be Wesley Sneijder, join tournament top scorer along side David Villa. He will orchestrate the Dutch attacking play from the middle.

***

I had given a thought of joining the world cup party at Dataran Merdeka tonight and watch from the big screen there while eating out the durian fest being set up by the Ministry of Agriculture. It is All-you-can-eat-for-RM15 only. There will be other fruit as well like the rambutan, langsat and few others on offering. Unfortunately, tomorrow will be a working day and it just not right for me to be at Dataran tonight.

Instead I choose the comfort of my living room and enjoy it alone, pretending that I am at the Johanesburg with millions of football fan focusing only on the game. I had made my preparation by taking my long 'nap' almost the whole of today's afternoon. Also, with Ayamas Drummet (extra hot) & Wall's Ice Cream (vanilla with chocolate sauce). Definitely, there will also be a big mug of hot black Hang Tuah coffee to keep me awake.

Fingers cross. May the better team win!

HOLLAND INTO WORLD CUP FINAL

Kawan-kawan mula kutuk-kutuk aku sebab Holland akhirnya secara rasmi layak ke Final, World Cup 2010. Mentang-mentang la Holland kalahkan Brasil hari tu.

Bengang je. Tapi, aku redho..

Cerita lanjut

BERKABUNG

saya masih 'berkabung' huhuhu.. click here

BRASIL OUT OF THE WORLD CUP

(Soccernet.com)

It's really a time to 'berkabung' as Brasil were beaten 1 - 2 by Holland last night (huhuhu..). As I expected in my previous entry (click here), it is Robben who became the Brasil's tormentor. Michel Bastos was unable to contain Robben and almost being shown the 2nd yellow card before, the coach Dunga substituted him mid way through the 2nd half. Not long after that, Felipe Melo's aggression on Robben had left the referee with no other option other than giving him straight red and the marching order. It's a very disappointing night for him after also scored an own goal.

Related news here

Hats off to Holland and good luck in the semifinal (against Uruguay).

Note : By the look of things, Holland had a very good chance to go to the final.. and possibly win the World Cup for the first time..

BRASIL

(Google)

During my schooling days, all I know about Brasil is that they had the best football team in the world and won the World Cup the most number of time. And, one of the city is Rio De Janeiro. That's it. Although I had been supporting Brasil football team since whenever it is (I can't really recalled), I don't even bother to know anything about the country itself except for those footballers coming from there. Pele, Zico, Socrates, Rai, Dunga, Romario, Bebeto, Rivaldo, Ronaldo bla.. bla.. bla.. up until the latest crops of young generation of Brasilian in the shape of Kaka, Robinho and co.

I'd been doing some google on Brasil and here are something, at a glance, about BRASIL (pronounce Bra'zil) :

Capital City : Brasília
Largest city : São PauloOfficial language(s) : Portuguese
Demonym : Brazilian
Independence from Portugal Declared : 7 September 1822
Area : 8,514,877 km2 (5th largest in the world after Russia, Canada, China & USA)
Population (2009 estimate) : 192,272,890[1] (5th largest after China, India, USA, Indonesia)
Currency : Real (R$) (BRL)
Drives : on the right
Internet TLD : .br
Calling code : +55

For more details on Independence, Politics, Geographic, Economy etc click here

Enough about the country.

(Google)

Brasil vs Holland - My preview

Tonight, Brasil will go against Holland for a place in this year World Cup semi final. The Dutch had a good tournament so far where they had won all their games. Personally, I don't find their wins been a convincing one so far. They rely too much on Robben to produce the kind of magic as the one he showed against the Slovakia in the quarterfinal match. Therefore, the Brasillian need to tie Robben movement and ensure that he will had a quiet game the whole of 90 minutes. That would be the job of the fullback, Maicon and Michel Bastos, as Robben normally operated from the flank - most of the time from the left side of the opposition. In this case, the job will be for Michel Bastos - although sometimes during the game Robben might switched side to the right (in this case it's Maicon's job).

Other threat to Brasil will be RVP (Robin Van Persie) who sometime could provide the magic that Robben does. He will be playing as a lone striker upfront. I believed, Lucio & Juan will be able to contain RVP throughout the match.

As for Brasil, I am hoping that Kaka, Robinho and Luis Fabiano could link up together and show the world their super-talented-skill to cut open the Dutch defence. It is a bit unfortunate to see Ramires suspended for accumulating 2 yellow cards. He would provide the lung-bursting-energy from the centre of the field to help the front 3 to cut open opposition defence. His energy will be missed.

Brasil always heavily dependent on their full back, Maicon & Michel Bastos, to push forward. However, in this game I believed the fullbacks need to be careful to not leaving to much gap at the back for the Dutch to exploit especially with the present of Robben. That would be devastating.

With the credential of both team and the superstars across their squad, I am fully expect a very good, fluent and competitive game to be on show tonight. May the better team win and hopefully it would be BRASIL.

V.I.V.A B.R.A.S.I.L


Note : I would love to see Robben in the Liverpool FC rank..